Wefaq SG calls on international community to send inquiry commission to Bahrain

Sheikh Ali Salman, the Sevretary-General of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society in Bahrain called on the international community to take a step forward and put Bahrain under binding decisions and send a rights inquiry commission and compel the visits of the Special Procedures of the United Nationâ€™s Human Rights Council.

He said in a videoed statement commenting on the condemnations made by 47 states in the U.Nâ€™s Human Rights Council on human rights violations in Bahrain, â€œWe want the truth to be revealed and announced by international partiesâ€. He added, â€œAfter all these condemnations and statements, and after the 176 recommendations that have not been implemented I call on the international community to take a step forward and hold a special session on Bahrain and at least issue a decision to send an inquiry commission so this commission declares what it witnesses on groundâ€.

â€œThe regime has paid big amounts of money, with continuous efforts through embassies and Public Relation firms and other means, to deliver a different image of the situation in Bahrain in human rights and politics. But the Geneva discussions came and quashed all these efforts

â€œThe international community â€“given the available communication opportunities today- is able to learn what is really happening in Bahrain. Therefore, all efforts made and to be made in the future, to hide the truth on violations and political backset and failure to genuine political reform. These efforts will smash once they hit the truth of reality, through the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the representatives of states and states sympathetic to human rights in Bahrain and international organizations

â€œThere is a single way to change Bahrainâ€™s true and awful image of human rights violations. That is by ending these violations and holding those involved in violations to account, and by opening a new page that begins with political reform and the entrenchment of respect to human rights. Other than this way, the attempts will lead to a failure. And in a monthâ€™s time you will face reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation as well as the Special Procedures on human rights. Foreign ministries of different states, even those states friend to the Bahraini regime will be compelled to mention these violations.

Salman expressed his great appreciation to all victims who documented the violations they had been subjected to. He said, â€œIâ€™d like to thank every victim for documenting these violations. Those whose homes had been attacked, those who had been tortured, arbitrarily arrested. This decision came because you documented these violations. Because you documented these grievances wherever you had gone to, whether Al-Wefaq, or the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, or the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, or the Human Rights Youth Centre. In all rights organizations and I apologize if I have not mentioned some. Any Bahraini organization working on documenting violations, cooperate with it. I mean the non-governmental organizations, not those created by the state. Reach the world through these violations that have taken place. This is the first natural step of the worldâ€™s sympathy with you.

â€œYou are the base grounds for what happened in Geneva. Thanks to your efforts, there is international sympathy. This international sympathy is not required in itself, we wish that human rights violations donâ€™t happen, and thus no such decision would be issued. But as long as these violations are taking place, we must use them to issue these decisions. We must use them as a means to prove Bahrainâ€™s need for political and democratic reform.

â€œI thank those working on human rights, in the Bahraini and non-Bahraini organizations who have worked on informing the international organizations of these grievances, and which led to the issuance of these decisions. I invite and urge them to continue their work.

â€œMy dears, you are struggling for democracy and respect of human rights and general freedoms. Allah the almighty grants us these part-victories so we stand our ground and persist to our will more and more. Because we have a just cause, because we are doing all we can, be sure that we will â€“by the desire of Allah- reach our rights one day. We will establish a democracy in Bahrain and we will force this regime and the government that will come after reform to respect human rights, to refrain attacking a home, a woman, a child, or torturing a detainee. Bahrain will live an era of dignity and freedom and construction, and I pray to Allah that we are close to that.

Addressing the international community he said, â€œAt this event, I would like to thank the Arabic and international rights organizations who followed Bahrainâ€™s issue for over two and a half years, and issued over 300 reports and statements on Bahrain. This is a modest figure, because I have overviewed, over a period of 6 months, more than 85 follow-up made by international organizations. Sure there are big numbers, but to be modest I would say 300, and even 400 would be modest. I thank those organizations that followed the Bahraini issue in general, and issued reports and statements on the arrest of a child or the torture of a person. I also thank the states who were fair to and stood by the people of Bahrain, especially Switzerland who read out the statement and faced the attack of Bahrainâ€™s representative but it sided with human rights and didnâ€™t accept to compliment or deceive its stance.

â€œWe call for the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom, Special Rapporteur on association, and others. Bahrain cancelled the visit of the Rapporteur on Torture because it knows well that he will reveal more than double of what Mr. Bassiouni had revealed on torture, and thus will be an internationally written document and scanda